Carry Nation is on the loose again, smashing topless bars as she radicalizes women and preaches clean living to men. . . . Mrs. Gulliver's patience with her long-voyaging Lemuel is wearing thin: Money is short and the kids can't even remember what their dad looks like. . . . The ever-faithful Tonto is turning forty --- and not so much as a birthday phone call from that masked man. . . .

In these and thirteen other fantastical short fictions, Karen Joy Fowler turns accepted norms inside out and fairy tales upside down, as she playfully pushes us to reconsider life's fragile realities.